Improvement in excavating apparatus



UNITED STATES PATENT @FEICE.

CYRUS G. FORCE, JR., OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN EXCAVATING APPARATUS.

A; Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 164,6453, dated June 22, 1875; application filed February 24, 1875.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CYnUs G. I onon, Jr., ofCleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have inventedcertain new and useful Im provements in Machines for Making Excavations;and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in theart to which it pertains to make and use it, reference being bad to theaccompanying drawings, which form part of this specification.

My invention relates to that class of mechanism employed in makingexcavations where a bucket is carried by a car overhead, and is loweredinto and drawn out from the said excavation through the medium of asteam engine or engines located upon the said ear, and the said carbeing located upon a movable platform, whereby the said car, togetherwith the bucket, may be shifted to alocality where it may be desired todump the dirt.

My invention consists, first, in a portable trestle-work that supportsthe rails upon which the said movable platform traverses; second, incombining with the said car and movable platform a portable trestle,whereby the said mechanism is adapted to do the work required in makingthe excavations for sewers, laying of pipes, making of cuts, 850.;third, in combinin g, with the said car and movable platform, a portabletrestle, the standards of which are seated in or upon sills that extendfrom the base of one standard across the excavation to the base of theother standard, whereby the structure is rendered rigid and not liable,by settling, to impair the gage of the track upon which the movableplatform traverses.

In the drawings, Figure l is a plan view representing my invention. Fig.2 is a section and elevation, representing my invention as it appears inuse.

A is a car traversing in the track B of the movable platform B. C arethe stringers located at the top of the trestles, and which bear thetracks C upon which the movable platform traverses. D are the uprightsthat support the stringers C. D are corbels for giving additionalstrength to the structure. D is a sill into which the standards and itsbraces F are seated. E is a mud-sill, to which the said sill D may beattached, if desired. In some cases, however, where it is impracttcable, or, from the nature of the earth, not desirable to employ themud-sills E, the sills D may alone be employed, and will give to thestructure a very good support. In cases, however, where the nature ofthe soil or earth C0111- posing the walls of the .excavation is such asnot to form a perfectly solid and rigid foundation for the said sills D,then it will be necessary to employ the mud-sills E, so that no matterwhat slight settling may take place the standards D and their sills Dwill be displaced proportionately, so that the gage of the tracks C willremain unaltered. G is a sewer or any other excavation that is beingcarried forward. H represents sheet-piles; 1, suitable braces forsupporting the side of the walls. J is a bucket; J, a wire or othercable, which passes around the drum K. The said drum is operated by apinion, L, upon the shaft of the rotary engine 1J7 which receives itssteam from the upright boiler M in any suitable manner. N is anindependent rotary engine, receiving its steam from the same boiler,which, through the medium of its pinion a, which gears into a cog-wheel,it, operates to turn the car-axle a, and causes the car A to traversefrom side to side upon the rails B. P is an independent rotary engine,which receives its steam from the boiler M, and, through th c medium ofits pinion p, gearing with a pinion, p, which latter pinion is featheredinto a groove in the shaft 1)", serves to turn the cogwheel p,

which, in turn, causes the movable platform B to traverse upon thetracks C.

The operation of the device may be briefly described as follows: By theengines N and I the car is brought to its proper position over the placewhere the bucket is to be lowered to receive the dirt. The bucket islowered by the engine L; it is filled with dirt, and is then raised upfree from the excavation into about engine N, it can be carried to oneside and Y dumped.

In this way it is obvious that by a single handling of the dirt it canbe raised from the excavation and dumped upon the work that is alreadycompleted, as, for instance, in making a seweryit may be lifted fromthat part which is being excavated and dumped upon that part of thesewer which has been completed ready for covering. In order that thismay be effected and may be made practicable in carrying forwardexcavations, it is necessary to provide a portable trestle-work. Such atrestle-work is shown in Fig. 2, wherein the standards D, their bracesF, and their sills D may be readily removed from the sill E by looseningthe bolts D.

When it is desired to carry the trestle-work forward over the portionthat is being excavated, it is only necessary to put in a new section ofthe portable trestle or, in many cases, where a portion of the work isbeing covered as another portion is being excavated, the last section ofthe trestle over that portion of the work that is being covered can beremoved and added to that end over the part that is being excavated.

In this way, with a limited number of trestles, the work can be carriedforward with rapidity and ease. It is also apparent that it will begenerally necessary, as heretofore stated, to employ the mud sill E,extending across the excavation, so as to maintain the proper gage ofthe tracks 0, upon which the movable platform B traverses.

It is also important that the said car A should be provided with rotaryengines rather than reciprocating engines. All reciprocating enginesoperate with more or less jar. It

is evident that such jarring, when in a locality connected with anexcavation, such as shown in Fig.2, would cause the walls of earth tocrumble and fall in; or, if there be quicksand, as is the case to agreater or less extent in nearly all excavations, it would start thesaid sands to running, whereby would be caused a considerable delay, andoften very great expens'e, as well as danger to the workmen.

I also deem it important that whether the cantle be provided with rotaryor reciproeating engines, there should be a separate engine for eachseparate part of the work, which said engines may be operatedindependently of each other. In this way much time can be saved, becauseit is evident that the engines may be operated simultaneously. Thus, assoon as the bucket has been hoisted I am not aware that a car of thisnature has ever beenprovided with one or more rotary I engines, wherebyit is adapted to operate in connection with excavations. Nor am I awarethat such a car has ever before been provided with separate engines forperforming each Q separate portion of the work, whether the 5 saidengine be rotary or reciprocatin I find this mechanism admirably adaptedat I the same time for drawing out sheet-piling N that may have beendriven on the sides of the For this purpose it is only necexcavation.essary to detach the bucket and attach to the cable in place thereof asuitable grapple,

whereby the sheet-piling is seized; then, through the medium of the drumK and the i mechanism by which the cable is brought directly over thepiling, the said piling can be drawn very rapidly.

WVhat I claim as my invention is 1. The combination, with the car A andthe movable platform B, of a portable trestle, whereby the device isadapted to the carrying forward of an excavation, such as sewers, cuts,

laying of pipes, &c., substantially as and for 5 the purpose described.

2. The combination, with the movable platformB and the standards D, ofthe sills E, I

extending across the excavation at the bottom of each standard, anduniting the base of the said standards, whereby the gage of the tracks 0is maintained, subzttntially as and 3 for the purpose described.

3. The combination, with the movable platform B and the standards D, ofthe sills D and braces F, substantially as and for the purposedescribed.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

CYRUS G. FORCE, JR.

Witnesses:

FRANCIS ToUMNEY, THOMAS E. HALL.

